


Canvases

by loubear



Series: Teacher AU [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-09
Updated: 2012-10-09
Packaged: 2017-11-15 23:13:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/532832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loubear/pseuds/loubear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis, a school teacher, doesn't expect to fall in love with the guest art teacher.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Canvases

Walking in to the dim room, Louis flicked the light on with one finger. He was balancing books, art supplies, and a plate full of freshly baked cookies. The lights took a minute to come on, flickering while they were warming up. Walking to the nearest table, Louis had to bend down further than he normally would have had to had he been in a different setting. Here the tables were lower for the kids. No, not the kids. His kids. Well…Not his own kids, but he felt like they were his. He cared for them like they were his. Splitting up the art supplies so there was paper, paints, crayons, and whatever else was necessary at every table, Louis began writing down the day’s agenda on the chalkboard. Learning about the letter H, counting up to 25, art time, lunch, recess, reading, nap, snack time. Then the day would be over. Louis never looked forward to the day being over. He hated going home where he was always alone and never had anything to distract him. While he loved being around the kids, he wished he had someone else, someone his own age. Someone he could care about in a different way. 

 

As it got closer to the start of the school day, kids began running in one by one. A few of them said hi to “Mr. Louis” while the others referred to him as Mr. Tomlinson. While Louis felt it was more proper to be called Mr. Tomlinson in the classroom, he didn’t mind being called Mr. Louis. He thought it was cute and when the kids called him that he knew they actually liked him. The bell rang just as the last student ran in. “Hello, class! Had a good night last night, I hope. Today we have quite a few things set up. We’re going to start learning about the next letter in the alphabet, and then after that we’re going to have art time. But today’s art time is going to be much more special than usual. We’re going to have a special guest come in today! His name is Mr. Styles and I hope you all listen to him and behave as well as you normally do. If you do, you’ll all get a special surprise during snack time!” The kid’s eyes lit up when they heard about the surprise and from then on the kids were behaving even better than usual. Not that they usually didn’t behave well, they were exceptionally well behaved for kindergartners, really, but Louis was astonished by how these kids were acting, so much so he had wished he had brought enough cookies so that everyone could receive two instead of one.

 

Before the class knew it, it was time for their special guest to come in. Louis had never met him but another one of the kindergartner teachers had recommended him to Louis, saying how fantastic he was with children and how he could always keep them entertained. Hearing a few quick knocks on the door, Louis walked over to the door and opened it to reveal a man dressed in an over-sized smock paired with a matching black beret. He had on what was obviously a fake curly mustache. In his arms were a stack of tiny berets, tiny canvases, and a bag full of paintbrushes. “Ah, you must be ze class I am teaching today! I am Mr. Styles, your art instructor and I shall be teaching you about art!” Mr. Styles’ accent, much like his mustache, was obviously fake, but the kids enjoyed it. They were all laughing and smiling. Placing everything on an empty table, Mr. Styles grabbed the stack of berets and placed one on everyone’s head, including Louis.

 

Walking to the front of the class, Mr. Styles stopped with his back to the class before turning on one foot so quickly that his beret went flying off his head. “Whoops! Don’t worry about that, kids. Mr. Beret and I have not been getting along well lately. He stole some of my biscuits and pretended that he didn’t steal them! Anyway, hello, children! I’m Mr. Styles, or Mr. Harold if you want to call me that. Or Mr. Harry for short. Any of them is fine. Today I will be teaching you how to mix paints to make fun, pretty colors!” 

 

Louis was standing in the back of the class, beret still atop his head, smiling. He had heard that Harry was good with kids, but Louis had no idea that he was that good with kids. They were all laughing and they were so excited to see an adult act so goofy in front of them. Not to mention that they had been asking about colors for weeks now and they were finally going to learn about them. There was something about Harry that Louis liked a lot. He had expected someone much older, someone not as fun as Harry, so he was pleasantly surprised by this. It wasn’t often that he found someone around his age that enjoyed being around kids as much as he did. And it was even more rare to find someone that was good with kids like Harry seemed to be. So far, Louis was rather impressed by Harry and had already started thinking about when he could get him to come back to teach the kids more.

 

Louis didn’t do much while Harry was helping the children. He walked around every once in a while to make sure all of the children were doing all right and understood what Harry was telling them to do. Louis didn’t have to do much other than that. Harry wasn’t having any trouble at all with any of the children. In fact, the kids doing exceptionally well for mixing paints the first time. Not that Louis was an artist by any means, he had trouble drawing stick figures most of the time, but he could tell that Harry was the type of person he had been looking for. Was he falling for Harry a bit? Maybe. It could be envy, perhaps a bit of awe because of the way he was handling the kids, but Louis wasn’t entirely sure. It was far too early to tell and Louis didn’t want to admit to himself that he did think Harry was good looking.

 

The time sped by and before the class knew it, art time was over. All of the kids were whining and asking if Harry could stay and continue the lesson after lunch. As much as Louis wanted that to happen too, he knew they had other things to do after the children came back from lunch. “Hopefully Mr. Styles would like to come back next week and teach us more about art,” Louis, looking up at Harry as he said this, smiled. He hoped Harry would say yes so he would have an excuse to see him again. The kids cheered and asked Harry if he would come back.

 

Not saying anything for a few moments to build suspense, Harry tapped his index finger against his chin, pretending like he had to think about it before he could answer. “Wellllll…I guess…I can maaaaybe do that,” a smile spread across Harry’s face when he saw the children’s reaction to the answer. Getting up at once, the children ran to Harry and hugged him. Laughing at what he was witnessing, Louis tried wrangling the kids back and helped Harry escape the grim fate of being smothered by a small mob of kindergartners. 

 

Standing next to Harry, Louis placed a hand on his shoulder. His hand brushed against Harry’s neck and Louis had to hide his reaction. His skin was softer than Louis could have ever imagined. Quickly pushing any thoughts about Harry that weren’t strictly school related out of his head, Louis thanked Harry for coming to the class and for doing such a fantastic job with his students. “Now, kids, the lunch bell is going to ring in about five minutes so I want you to all go over to the sink and get cleaned up, all right? Do it quickly and quietly.”

 

As the kids shuffled off to clean up their tables and wash their hands, Louis helped Harry clean up his things and made small talk. In the short amount of time they talked, Louis learned that Harry wasn’t much younger than he was, that he had gone to college for art but it had never really taken him anywhere, and that he wanted to become an elementary school art teacher. The last bit of information was the last thing Louis needed to hear at that moment. He could already feel himself falling for Harry even though they had met not even an hour before. Before Louis knew what he was doing, he asked Harry if he would want to join him for lunch. A smile formed on Harry’s face when he heard the question. “I’d love to join you for lunch, Mr. Tomlinson,” Harry said. Louis tried hiding his face by looking down and grabbing a nearby stack of papers so he could pretend to sort through them. He didn’t want Harry to see that he was blushing.

 

Pulling two brown lunch bags out of the staff refrigerator, Louis handed one to Harry. “I always bring an extra lunch just in case one of the kids doesn’t have enough money to get a lunch. Want to go back to the classroom and eat? It’s a lot more quiet there,” Louis was fumbling with his words and he was hoping Harry didn’t notice. Harry was trying to hide a smile, but it wasn’t going over very well and he noticed Louis staring at him.

 

“We can go back to the classroom, if you’d like? It’s a bit quieter there. The tables are quite small, though….” Louis stood in front of the refrigerator, looking around as if he didn’t want to be seen with Harry at that moment, but Harry was sure he was reading that wrong. “Yeah, I’d like that. You lead the way, Mr. Tomlinson.”

 

“Call me Louis, please,” Louis said as he held the door open for Harry. They walked down the hallway in silence and, once they got to the classroom they sat at one of the small tables, Harry’s knees up to his chest and Louis’ knees in a more comfortable position. “I’m really sorry about the seating situation. I didn’t realize how tall you are or else we could have stayed in the teacher’s lounge,” Louis chuckled a bit as he said this to Harry because he looked absolutely ridiculous, like a man baby.

 

“No, I’m glad we came here. It’s nice and quiet and…I like quiet,” Harry had to stop himself from saying something along the lines of “and I wanted to spend some time alone with you.” Noticing a piece of paper and a crayon on the table near him, Harry grabbed it, scribbled something down, and passed it over to Louis. “Here’s my number in case you need to call me for anything.” Louis looked at it and Harry noticed his face flushed a bit. “But…Harry. I already have your number. That’s how I got ahold of you, you know.” Harry opened his mouth to say something, but nothing except a laugh came out. “Keep it in case you happen to lose the other piece of paper. I’d really like to come back soon. I like it here.” 

 

Louis folded the paper up and slipped it in to his pocket, his fingers lingering on it for a moment before pulling his hand back out. “I’ll give you a call soon. Maybe we could meet up and discuss a few ideas for the class? Over dinner maybe some night…” The last part of the sentence came out as a mumble and Louis instantly regretted saying it. “Or, I mean. We can just talk over the phone. Whichever you prefer, of course.” He was talking at warp speeds now. “Woah, Louis. Slow down. Did you…just ask me out?”


End file.
